The Journal Gazette, 600 W. Main St., Fort Wayne IN

INDIANAPOLIS – House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, has his eye on ending the legislative session early.

The scheduled end date is March 14, but Bauer said members of the House are “pressing hard” to be out by the beginning of March.

“I don’t know if we can,” Bauer said.

Leaving early would give all 100 members of the House – who are up for re-election this year – more time to campaign in this critically important campaign cycle.

The party that wins the majority in November’s election gets the right to draw new legislative boundaries in 2011. Those new districts would last for 10 years.

Gov. Mitch Daniels said if the lawmakers can complete the important tasks before them, “I’ve got no objection (to an early close) and taxpayers probably don’t either.”

That’s because an early end to legislative action could save money.

Currently, lawmakers receive an in-session per diem of $155 to cover expenses each day and an out-of-session per diem of $62 a day.

If they would get out one week early, it could save the state almost $100,000 in expense pay.

But the legislators went into overtime last year and had early hearings in December, so the savings could be negligible.

The House, so far, has passed legislation on tax caps, ethics changes and township-government streamlining but hasn’t yet taken up a delay in unemployment insurance tax increases – a Republican priority.

Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, said the ethics package that passed the House needs major work and differs greatly from a Senate package. And he noted that unless the House and Senate agree to a compressed schedule, leaving early means there isn’t a lot of time to work out compromises in conference committee.

“We’ll see,” Long said.

Only half of the Senate’s members are up for re-election, and the Republicans have a solid hold on the majority in that body.

nkelly@jg.net